It pisses me off when someone reports that the Hurricane is now a Cat 5 with 170 mph wind speed, and they NEVER tell you the altitude from which that windspeed is derived. I suspect they are making statement based on Max Sustained Windspeed (avg peek over 1 minute) at flight level (10,000 ft.) At surface level, the max sustained windspeed is going to be much, much less.

But my question is this:

If I look at current Milon windspeed at 10 m above surface, I cannot see anything higher than 68 mpg. Yet YT weather sources are reporting Milton has strengthened to CAT 5 with 170 mph winds.

Even at 10K ft., I only see 90 mph windspeed. I do see Wind Gust speed up to 110 mph, but gust are gust.

Why such huge difference between what Weather people report and what the Satellite's report?

I have done a moderate amount of reading to try and answer my own question. I have read that when storm Max Sustained is reported, the standard is suppose to be 10 m above surface. But I doubt this is adhered too.